EDUCA Flagship

The EDUCA (Education for the Future) Flagship, funded by the Research Council of Finland, addresses the challenges of decreasing learning achievement, increasing school absences and dropout rates, and digital technology in education by creating a novel research ecosystem that promotes the cross-pollination of methodological and conceptual approaches spanning educational science, psychology, learning analytics, sociology, and economics.
The EDUCA Flagship is creating a unique data infrastructure, integrating existing data while concurrently augmenting it with large-scale data collections and how AI can be used to support education.
EDUCA will generate deeper understanding of the effects of policy reforms and interventions, optimal learning moments and engagement, teacher and principal competences, and ways in which education can better support social and personalized learning processes and more effectively use technology enhanced learning environments in education.
The consortium of the EDUCA Flagship consists of researchers from the Universities of Jyväskylä, Helsinki and Turku, and Aalto University, and is led by Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen, Professor of Education at the University of Jyväskylä. In total, the consortium brings together hundreds of researchers from Finland and from top universities abroad, such as Harvard, Yale, and Oxford.
News about EDUCA

In August 2025, the University of Jyväskylä had the pleasure of hosting the EARLI SIG 5 Conference on Learning and Development in Early Childhood.

This fall, the EDUCA Flagship Consortium Meeting brought our researchers together in Turku for two intensive and inspiring days.

In his doctoral thesis Haoyan Huang, M.A. examines what helps foster adolescents’ curiosity in learning and under what conditions curiosity contributes to better academic outcomes.

In late August, EDUCA Flagship hosted a one-day seminar at the University of Turku to address current issues in education and young people's well-being. The seminar was aimed at principals and education directors from southwest Finland.

In her EDUCA-column senior researcher Kaisa Leino reflects on what the most important message from the PISA results is.

The aim of the memorandum of understanding is to strengthen international cooperation in the areas of research, education and professional development.



